BPextra_PTE_iGoogle

I was so excited about this I created a video. I plan to use this with my teachers to introduce them to iGoogle.

BP16_2009123_PeerReviewAlvarez

One Minute Message Visual Thesaurus


I really like that tool. It would bean excellent tool for young writers to expand their vocabulary. I could I would also be helpful for me with my CBL project as the students are writing scripts. I was watching one of the interviews one of my anchors did and she must of used the word cool 5 times. I will certainly introduce them to this tool. Thanks

BP14_2009123_PeerReviewChulhan

EDU2.0 is a learning management system for k -12. Therefore EDU2.0 cannot be used in the corporate environment, which by the way is the same story for most of the tools evaluated in this course. I have enjoyed playing with them but in the end I can’t use them. The evaluation of EDU 2.0 is the final straw, this class Emergent technology in a collaborative culture has be targeted to teachers for k through 12 not for corporate trainers. In fact I would say that most of this program is geared towards teachers and I feel pretty left out. Yes I could see the potential of some of these tools and I have blogged about them but I must protest the lack of focus on tools that can be implemented today into the corporate classroom.
Moving on, I have decided to talk about the value of LMS systems in corporate training, which has been an essential part of corporate training for the past 10 – 15 years. In an article in the New York Times titled “Within Companies, Too, Education Proves Its Value” argues that companies that invest in employee training and development out perform those that don’t. They go on to state that a company’s success depends on its human capital. What does that have to do with LMS? LMS allows companies to monitor and evaluate their human capital. For the employee LMS systems provides them with a roadmap to success as they must view themselves are learners that need to constantly update their skills in order perform their jobs and advance within the organization. LMS systems, usually offers, course listings and resources such as publications to the student, they also offer reports and assessments to the trainer all within one platform. Hey are robust and can support large organizations and ensure corporate privacy and data protection.
EDU 2.0 has similar offerings as other LMS systems for corporations and It will allow students to take school home while they are doing their homework. It looks like any other LMS system except it is clear that is gear toward children and teenagers.

Sarah,
I certainly feel your frustration for different reasons. I have gone to school to try to use some of these tools and found they are blocked. Most of them need e-mail accounts that students my age either don't have and we are not allowed to sign them up for. Maybe one day in a town called perfect we will be able to use them but not at this moment. I did like the timeline tool and posted that one too. I like some of the other tools at classtools.com

Mary

It was a quiet and dark night. Mary sat in her favorite chair waiting for her mother to come home.  The curtains dance in the air generated by the fan in the window. Will her mom bring the surprise she wanted. She waited with anticipation. The she heard footsteps coming down the hall. Was it her mother?

BP15_2009123_OneMinuteMessage2

song Cool As I Wanna Be written by Louria Ann Macon in garageband

BP13_2009123_Tool#5zoho.com

Look out Microsoft Office. Zoho.com is here. Zoho.com has a suite of tools to create documents, presentations, and spreadsheet and more. The tools can also be shared with other for collaborative groups. My music teacher had her students work on presentations about famous musicians in groups. She used power point. the problem with that was the students could only use on computer and only one student could work at a time. This would be a wonderful way to work if it is not block at my school. I also like the the fact that embedding the images in the blog was easy. I did it here. You just publish your document and copy and paste the embed code in the blog. I found this suite of products a little more robust than the google suite and a little easier to use since it looks more like office. The documents also export to office products.




Also I could use this with my story idea instead of using a blog. Like google docs you can share this document and all the students can add to the story. You can add pictures and authorize your flikr account. You can also embed these stories in a website or blog as shown below.



Macon,S. (2004). Girl Sitting [watercolor]. from personal collection.








You can also create spreadsheets and graphs in Zoho. These can also be shared which is great for group projects. You can also post documents directly to your blog as show by the post Mary in my blog. Which I did quite by accident.

Zoho.com has everything from chats to setting up meetings.

Macon,L. (2009) screenshots from zoho.com

www.zoho.com

BP12_2009123_#4classtools.net_timeline

In the classnet tools I found a timeline creator which is simple to use. I didn't have to sign up for and account to use it. Web 2.0 tools like this that are easily assessable to teacher will be more welcomed than tools where students need to get an account or have e-mail. I just click on the site I was able to use it. Students would be able to instantly create timelines. The timelines have a function to embed in blog and on webpages which I tried but didn't get to work. You can save the timelines as webpages to share. This would be helpful in history class where sometimes students have a problem with putting things in perspective. This would also be useful in teaching cause in effect where detail happen over a period of time. I could be useful in comparing novels to movies. In movies our hobbit seems to save the world in a couple of hours but in actuality it took those little hobbits a much longer time to save middle earth. And what events occurred that were not in the movie.

Students can decide on events that were significant in their life and explain why they were important to them.
They can also work in groups to decide what the significants events were and why creating dialogue among the students. For example give them a time period to work with. Have them research important events during that time and and as a group they have to decide what is important and why if they could only choose 10 in a decade.

I have created a timeline below of significant events for me from the time I was born to the time I graduated High School.

Images courtesy of classtools.net

BP10_2009122_PeerReview

Macon, S. (2003) The Headache.[ink drawing]. from personal collection.
used by permission of the artist



In Defense of the Classroom Teacher

I would like to take a different view on the peer review. I looked at a number of blogs from my fellow peers blogs trying to decide on which one to review. I read through their posts on Anti-teaching and I found that yes they agree that the current educational system does not support student learning and more geared towards grades and passing test. Most of the the blogs I looked at like myself are what I will call "Special Teachers". We do not teach what is considered academics. Whether it be music, art or technology since it is not a tested curriculum it is not considered what the policy makers think is relevant. Classroom teachers have a heavy burden on their shoulders and they feel the weight of the current educational system more than we do. In my county our teachers are constantly being monitored by the district. The have curriculum maps that tell them what to teach, when to teach it and how long they have to teach them. They are even told what they should put on their walls. They have to have their word walls for each subject. Their LEQ's - I can honestly say I don't know what that is - some kind of learning focus strategy for each subject have to be posted on their walls and if they are not there they are written up. They are told how long they are to teach each subject and they cannot teach anything else during that time. They have quarterly assessment and their students have to pass these benchmarks by a certain time. If their students don't meet these mandates then they have to present a plan on how they are going to reach these goals. They have to inform the administration what benchmarks have been taught and what they have done with the students that remediate them. They have to analyze the data, reteach and retest. This information has to be given to the administration which report it to the district. I agree that the web 2.0 tools presented in the blogs are wonderful tools but it requires a lot of time and practice to use them in the classroom effectively. In my district I know my teachers plates are already full. Having been a classroom teacher for 10 years I know the pressures facing these teachers. I know they also want to use more technology in the classroom but if it takes you 3 hours to analyze the data from one benchmark assessment when do you have time to research new teaching tools. When I get home from work I go to my computer and spend hours just doing homework for the classes from this program. My teachers usually stay late working on data, parent conferences, and getting prepared for the next visit from the district. Being a technology teacher and television production teacher I have the luxury of not having to defend my class performance on an assessment test. No one ask me where my students are on the curriculum maps or what benchmarks I have taught this week. I do not have to give a report to the administration on the strategies I used for the students who didn't pass these benchmarks. All of these tools are wonderful tools but unless a change comes from the top we will still be blogging about the same thing years from now.

BP11_2009122_OneMinuteMessage1

BP8_2009122_Tool#3Slidestory

images taken from http://www.slidestory.com/?page=home

Slidestory is a site where students can create and share slideshows they create. The can add photos or artwork to illustrate there story. This a good site to foster writing skills. They can narrate their slide show. To engage students to write they need an audience. When they know that someone will be watching their work they will be encourage to put more time and effort in their work.  They can also view what others have done. By posting to the website others can comment on their work getting genuine feedback. The teacher can create a class account for the students to share. There is a search engine so that the teacher can find similar slideshows that students watch and evaluate helping to develop media literacy skills. By being able to add voice students can practice their reading skills also.

BP7_2009122_Tool#2Dabbleboard

http://www.dabbleboard.com/

image taken from http://www.dabbleboard.com

Dabbleboard is an interactive white board that students can use to create drawings and work collaboratively. I have found that most of the web 2.0 tools require students to sign up to get an account to use which would be hard to use with 4th and 5th graders who do not have access unless they already have one. Our county has restrictions on student account as of now. With dabbleboard you can use it without getting an account however they could not use it collaboratively. Our students are already using graphic organizers. This would make the process more engaging for them. They can also add pictures in the products. With an account they can also chat while they are working.  Students can share their work with their peers.

BP9_2009122_FlickrLesson

http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/

While looking at web 2.0 sites I found this site called bookr. Bookr ties into flickr because students can upload images from flickr to create books.  The students can use tags to locate images add them to the pages to and write a story to go along with them.  I started a book called food groups. I used the word food as a tag the food an image for each food group. The the student an add the information about the food group to the page. The books can be published to be share with the class. You do not need an account to use bookr.

BP5_2009121_SocialBookmarking

Social Bookingmarking

At first glance Social Bookmarking looked like a marketing tool for internet businesses to create traffic for their websites.  Social Bookmarking allows users to share their sites with others on the web while storing them in a central location that can be access in from any computer.  This is what intrigues me about social bookmarking. The old way is when you are on another computer and you find a site you want to keep you would have to either write it down or e-mail the link to yourself.  Now with delicious and other sites you can post you bookmark on your site account and it will be accessible anytime you need it.

At my school I have created a folder on the server where I keep all the website links.  These links are organized in folders by content area(that would be my form of tagging).  Then I have to create a shortcut to the folder on the teacher and student computers.  Student computers have a link to sites that have interactive games and activities. I have found this cheaper than buying interactive software because there are so many free activities and games the students can use. So I have been doing some social bookmarking, who knew? If a teacher found a site they wanted to share they would send it to me and I would add it to the folder.

So now to move into the 21st century I want to create a separate bookmarking site for my school where I can post these sites and everyone can have access  on any computer from any location. What a great idea!

BP6_2009121_AntiTeaching

Before I can talk about Personal Learning Systems – PLE, Course Management Systems – CMS or Learning Management Systems  - LMS we first must think about education itself. Just like the objective of your lesson plan we must consider the objective of education. You must have a desired outcome in mind. That objective drives your teaching. So why do I teach? The federal, state, and district policy makers all have their agenda and I will not go into that here. Then there are my personal reasons for they are what drive me to go to work everyday. Do I mask them to comply with the powers that be? Yes I do. I like to eat like everybody else. However there is nothing more powerful than a brain that wants to learn. When I have students come to me and tell me something they found out or learned on their own because of something we did in class I feel I have really taught them something. To be productive citizens in today’s society our students must discover their intelligences or talents and use them to support themselves while making a positive contribution to the future of our society. That inspiration will drive their need to learn. That is why I teach. With that being my objective then I can decide what platform would be best to obtain that goal.

We as teachers must consider all learners and provide opportunities for them to learn in a matter best suited for their learning style and in the same instance expose them to new experiences. I am an auditory learner. You may not know this but I am usually cooking dinner or washing dishes during wimba sessions. I remembered the change in wimba time from 7pm to 7:30 because I didn’t get the e-mail of the change but it was mentioned in class. I just put my laptop in the kitchen window and I am there. So it was a leap of faith for me to enroll in an online masters program. I had decided to go to the local university and doing the traditional 2 year program having to drive 45 minutes to class every Saturday. I thought I needed to be sitting to class listening to the professor because I just needed to hear what was being said. I must say these first few months have been difficult for me. However with each month it is getting easier. As teachers we have to do the same. Give our students opportunities to try new things. They may think they are more kinesthetic or visual learners but they may have other intelligences they haven’t even explored yet.

In the elementary setting some teachers think that students have to be “taught” everything. I have learned that if you pose the question and direct students to find out for themselves. Even students in the primary grades can discover the answer.  Just give a child some manipulatives and ask them what would happen if you put 2 orange pieces and 2 red pieces together. They will put 2 and 2 together and get 4. They may discover something you haven’t thought of yet. If the shapes are rectangles the may come up with a bigger rectangle which is learning on another level.

So how do PLEs, LMS, Virtual Environments and web 2.0 fit into this vision?  They are all tools at the teachers disposal to meet their objective. None of these platforms will work without purpose. When we inspire our students to want to learn they will choose the platform that best suits their learning style. Do they fit the bill for today’s educational system. Of course not! It was never meant to be. The instructional models, blogs, PLE will be another tool I can give to my students to drive their learning. I will use them to meet my objective to instill the desire to want to learn.

I feel that self-taught author Mark Twain said it best: "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."